Canadians cool to closer economic links with Asia, poll says

Peter O'Neil, Vancouver Sun06.10.2014

Canadians, with the exception of British Columbians, are cooling to Asia and a “cultural bias” may be standing in the way of better relations with the world’s fastest-growing economic engine, according to a new poll.

OTTAWA — Canadians, with the exception of British Columbians, are cooling to Asia and a “cultural bias” may be standing in the way of better relations with the world’s fastest-growing economic engine, according to a new poll.

That bias could be costly to Canada, according to an analysis of the findings by a Vancouver-based think-tank.

And it means political, business and educational system leaders need to do a better job of convincing the public of the importance of engagement with countries like China and India.

“Given the growing importance of Asia, Canada’s standard of living and influence in the world will be increasingly tied to strengthening its economic and political relationships with Asian partners,” cautioned the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, which sponsored the annual survey that probed the views of just under 3,500 Canadians.

“However, our study shows that the Canadian public has reservations about economic engagement with Asia.”

The survey, reflecting the biases of the more than two-thirds of respondents who were of European descent, indicated greater public interest in expanding trade with Australia even though that country has a fraction of the wealth and growth potential of the Asian countries.

“That group may prefer to engage economically with countries they view as sharing their language and customs,” suggested the foundation in the 10th edition of its annual survey.

But language training, cultural exchanges and other government efforts could help Asian countries appear “less foreign” to Canadians, according to the analysis.

“Anxiety about foreign influence is a factor, but there is no reason to assume that cultural bias is an unchanging, ingrained spoiler in Canadian attitudes toward Asia.”

Foundation President Yuen Pau Woo, noting that the data results mirror concern about trade deals and other links with a range of countries, such as Brazil and Russia, said Monday the data results don’t reflect a bias against a particular cultural group.

Canadians, instead, are simply “fearful of change,” he said.

He noted that Canada does roughly three times as much trade with South Korea than it does with Australia, yet roughly a quarter of Canadians feel Australia is “highly important” to the Canadian economy — almost double the total for South Korea.

“So there is a disconnect,” Woo said.

Overall, the poll found a decline in public support for closer links with Asia at a time when many experts and opinion-leaders have stressed the importance of taking advantage of the region’s growth.

“Canadian public opinion in 2014 is decidedly less positive toward the prospect of strengthening social and economic relations with Asia than it was a year ago,” the report found, citing figures showing that 41 per cent believe Canada would benefit from greater Asian investment — down nine points from the 2013 survey.

Just over a third of Canadians (35 per cent) believe China is “highly important,” the lowest level ever recorded in the foundation’s annual survey began a decade ago and down 10 points from the previous year.

And only 41 per cent of Canadians view China’s growing economic power as more of an opportunity than a threat, down seven points to an all-time low.

The percentage of Canadians who believe the country’s top foreign policy priority should be improving economic and political relations is also in free-fall, plunging from 55 per cent in 2012 to 51 per cent last year and 37 per cent in 2014.

The lack of enthusiasm translates into sliding support for various measures to improve relations — from trade negotiations and trade missions to economic incentives to help companies and the teaching of Asian languages in Canadian schools.

The survey analysis said the declining interest in Asia, most pronounced among the age 55-and-older cohort, is not linked to any hostility towards a particular Asian group.

Instead, it suggests there is simply a sense that the region isn’t as economically important, and speculated that a declining interest in following news among older Canadians is behind the malaise.

“Although it remains difficult to pinpoint the precise reason why perceptions of Asia shifted, our findings suggest that changes in older Canadians’ consumption of Asia-related news had an influence on their views of the region.”

But the poll also suggested Canadians have some tangible concerns about policy issues in many Asian countries involving different wage, labour and human rights standards, unfair government support for state-owned companies, and the threat of a military clash in Asia that involves increasingly powerful China.

B.C., with its Asia-focused economy and historically large population of Indo- and Chinese-Canadians, showed a similar bias in favour of traditional economic allies like the United Kingdom.

But West Coast respondents also displayed far more enthusiasm for closer trans-Pacific relations, according to the survey:

• Roughly three-quarters of B.C. respondents felt Asia is important to their prosperity, compared to around 40 per cent of Ontarians and Quebecers.

• While a majority of British Columbians favoured the province’s recent move to open more trade offices in Asia, there is less interest in other provinces for doing the same.

• While the 38 per cent of British Columbians who support more teaching of Asian languages was the highest total in the country, that figure was still far lower than the 52 per cent who opposed that idea.

• When Canadians were asked to rank countries in terms of their “warm” feelings toward them, British Columbians gave the highest ratings of respondents in any province to Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia and India.

Ontario, where the manufacturing industry has been hurt badly by foreign competition, gave the “coolest” ratings in the country to China, India, South Korea and Southeast Asia.

British Columbians were also most likely to consider Canada part of the Asia-Pacific region, and more a part of the region than it was a decade ago.

British Columbians were also the only province where interest in Asia increased in 2014. B.C. was also tops in the country in viewing China, Japan and India important to Canada’s economic well-being.

B.C.’s openness to Asia doesn’t translate into support for the launching of free-trade negotiations — just 36 per cent support negotiations with China compared to 52 per cent against. British Columbians were also unenthusiastic about free trade with other Asian countries, though West Coast respondents would be overwhelmingly enthusiastic about a trade deal with Australia and are fans of the proposed Canada-Europe trade agreement.

The online poll of 3,487 Canadians, conducted in late February and early March, is considered by Angus Reid to be accurate to within 1.7 percentage points. The provincial error margins are larger due to smaller sample sizes. B.C.’s, for instance, is 4.59 points.

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